Kurdish militants behind attack on Turkish opposition: minister

Reuters Staff

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Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu (C) speaks on his mobile phone after an attack against his convoy in the northeastern city of Artvin, Turkey, August 25, 2016.Stringer

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's interior minister on Thursday blamed the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for an attack on the convoy of the main opposition leader that left three soldiers wounded and said an operation had started against the militants in response.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) was traveling in northeast Turkey when his convoy was targeted in an attack, Efkan Ala said on live television. He said Kilicdaroglu was unharmed in the attack.

The PKK, seen as a terrorist organization by the United States, Europe and Ankara, has carried out a three-decade insurgency in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast that has left more 40,000 dead.

Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Asli Kandemir; Writing by David Dolan; editing by Patrick Markey